The glaring rays of the sun or the headlights of an oncoming automobile pose a serious hazard to a driver since the light may impair the driver's vision by causing temporary blindness and thus rendering the driver a danger to himself, his passengers and other automobiles or pedestrians on the road.
Another hazard resulting from the glare of sunlight or vehicle headlights on a driver's eyes is that the driver may be forced to remove one hand from the steering wheel so as to extend it in front of him as a shield in an attempt to block out the glaring rays. The glare of incoming light may also cause the driver to search around the vehicle for a pair of sunglasses, again causing a distraction from the concentration required when driving. Moreover, the rays of the sun, particularly in the early morning or early evening hours as the sun rises and sets, but also at all other hours during the day, may cause traffic to slow down and back up as drivers cautiously slow down because of their limited visibility.
Most automobiles and trucks manufactured today are equipped with a window visor which is rotatably mounted to the roof of the vehicle or to the support structure of the front windshield. Generally, these window visors rotate from an upward "stored" position adjacent the roof of the vehicle to a downward "open" position, such that when the window visor is in the downward position, the driver is provided with a small opaque visor or sunshade in the upper region of the front windshield. When in its downward "open" position, the sunshade may serve to partially shield the driver's eyes from a small amount of incoming sunlight directed at an angle substantially above the horizon. The sun shade does not, however, provide shielding from light directed in a straight line at the driver's eyes, nor from the rays which are reflected off the ground. Particularly, the sun shade provides no benefit for night driving when the incoming light of oncoming vehicles strike the driver's eyes from directly ahead in a straight line.
Since the window visor is rotatably mounted to the vehicle's roof or windshield support structure, when it is in its downward "open" position, it may be rotated to a side position and disposed in the plane substantially parallel to the plane of the driver's side window, such that the visor becomes a side window shade immediately to the left of the driver and may serve to block incoming light from the driver's side. However, as when the window visor is in front of the drivers when the window visor is shifted to the driver's side window, it shields the driver only from light directed from an angle substantially above the horizon. When incoming light is directed along a straight line in the driver's line of view, the window visor does not provide sufficient shielding.
Nearly all vehicles also come equipped with a sun visor mounted similarly on the front seat passenger side of the vehicle since the same problems discussed above affect the person sitting in the passenger side as well.
In addition to the manufacturer-provided window visor, others have attempted to provide vehicle add-on devices for reducing the amount of sun or the amount of headlight glare which reaches a driver's eyes. U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,856 to Newsome provides an office organizer comprising slots or pockets for holding pens, pencils, a note pad, eyeglasses and other things. The office organizer is mounted on the vehicle's window visor and provides easy access to the aforementioned accessories when the visor is in its downward or open position. In one embodiment of the Newsome device, the office organizer is provided with a series of supplemental hinged panels which are transparent and optically coated or tinted to provide protection from sunlight when they are folded down. The devices of the organizer, i.e. the pencil holders and the eyeglass pouch, etc., are also transparent and are superimposed on the transparent panels so as to permit the driver to see through the devices and the panels while reaching for the object stored on the office organizer. Unfortunately, the presence of such devices on the optically coated transparent panels impair a driver's view by further obstructing his view of the road. Furthermore, the Newsome device is bulky and may, as a result of its weight, cause the vehicles window visor to sag or fall down thus startling the driver and blocking his field of vision unexpectedly.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,379,929 to Eskandry, there is disclosed a multi-function automobile visor unit accessory carrier for holding accessories such as eyeglasses, keys, credit cards, pens and paper items. The Eskandry accessory carrier is secured to a vehicle's window visor by elastic straps which encircle the visor. Additionally, the Eskandry device is provided with numerous layers, one of which is provided having a longitudinal slot therein and within which a tinted, planar viewing screen is disposed. To provide access to the tinted screen, a small protruding tab extends from the lower edge of the viewing screen while it is stored within the longitudinal slot. When the driver desires to utilize the viewing screen, the screen may be laterally extended from within its slot by pulling the protruding tab and lowering the screen to its desired position in front of the vehicle's occupant. In addition to the protruding tab, the lower portion of the viewing screen always protrudes beyond the lower edge of the accessory carrier. The viewing screen is provided with sawteeth which coact and interact with the terminal ends of the longitudinal slot to enable the occupant to position the viewing screen at various extension positions beyond its closed, stored position within the slot of the accessory carrier. The bulky and large size of this device and its external attachment to the vehicle's existing window visor is aesthetically unappealing. Many drivers, particularly those driving new or high end vehicles do not desire to exhibit a bulky attachment to their window visor. Furthermore, the sawteeth of the viewing screen may become worn from excessive use and may thus fail to coact with the terminal ends of the slot thus causing the viewing screen to fall from within the slot whenever the window visor is lowered. This may dangerously obstruct the driver's view unexpectedly. Furthermore, since the Eskandry visor unit attaches to the vehicle's own window visor, the weight of the accessory carrier itself may cause the window visor to sag or fall unexpectedly.
Accordingly, there is a need for a vehicle window visor which serves as a supplemental vehicle screen to filter and diminish the intensity of incoming light that reaches a driver's eyes, and avoids the disadvantages discussed above.